Hell on Earth
by coloradorunner-17
Summary: What if Sam had visions of Dean's time in hell? What would he do to stop the visions and save Dean? How would both brothers cope once Dean returned, and how would Dean react to Sam having seen so much? Basically, my story of what happened while Dean was in hell told through a mostly cannon plot line intermingled with flashbacks. T for violence. First fanfic, reviews appreciated!
1. Chapter 1

_ The knife plunged into his skin again, elicting a sharp inhale as he held back a scream. He continued to hold back the scream as it was dragged along his torso, until it finally erupted from his clenched jaw when the blade scratched against his rib._

_ Gasping for air, for relief, for some escape from this literal hell hole, he held back tears._

_ Allistair, the old demon, stood, clutching the knife dripping with Dean's blood, grinning with satisfaction as he watched one tear slip out of Dean's green eyes._

_ "Are you ready to accept my offer yet, Dean?" he asked, the sadistic grin still on his face._

_ "Never," Dean mustered courageously, holding back shakes that wracked his body._

I jolted back into reality, clutching at the familiar, worn counter beneath my fingertips.

"You had another vision, didn't you?" Bobby asked, offering a beer to me as the I pulled my hair off my face in what I hoped was not a frantic gesture.

"I hope it's nothing more than a nightmare," I said, downing a large portion of the bottle. Two weeks since Dean had been taken, and I was still having visions of Dean's torture every so often.

"Sam, do you want to tell me-" Bobby asked before I cut him off.

"Dammit, no I don't Bobby. Ive got to find a way to get him out!" I said, grabbing the duffel and taking off to the Impala, squealing off before Bobby could even call me an idjit.

I drove for twelve hours before I pulled over to refuel Dean's baby and get a motel. As I pumped gas, a petite and rather attractive brunette walked over to me. Although walked wasn't really the right word- she swung her hips as if she knew she was hot stuff, and I was not in the mood to deal with her.

"Hey Sammy," she said, causing me to jump.

"How the hell do you know my name?" I asked, reaching for the knife in my back pocket.

"You know only my knife will work, honey," she said, waggling a serrated blade.

"Ruby?" I asked, incredulously.

"The one and only. What's up Sammy?"

"Only Dean calls me that!" I said to the demon.

"Called, sweetheart. Although I hear he screams it pretty loud down in hell. I mean-"

"Shut up! What the hell do you want?" I asked. I felt a vision creeping in as she mentioned Dean's torture and screams. Pushing it back, I awaited an answer.

"To help you get revenge. You cant get big brother back, but you can kill Lilith, and I want in," she stated, grinning.

"How?"

"Demon blood, of course. You just have to be willing, and I'll train you," she said.

_Dean would never want me to accept help. But, Ruby did almost save Dean. She might be sincere. And maybe, just maybe, I could get him back from hell. Or stop the visions._

"Come on, Sam, I know you want revenge, and I know you want the visions gone. It'll help, I promise," she said, seductively.

"I'm in."

Ruby pulled me in for a kiss, and pressed a bloody hand to my mouth.

3.5 Months Later

I had finally pulled up to Bobby's with the crap car I had found once I was magically back up on earth. First day back from Hell, and my baby was not to be driven.

I slammed the beater's door and walked through the junk yard, breathing in the familiar scent and relishing in the fall air.

It sure as hell beat the fires of hell.

I knocked on Bobby's door, standing back slightly, not knowing what his reaction would be.

No surprise, he came out swinging.

"Bobby, stop. It's me, really. Not a demon, or a shapeshifter," I exclaimed as he charged me with the knife. I sidestepped it, trying to get him to calm down. He came at me again, and I grabbed his wrist, bringing the silver blade down across my palm, a bit to deeply as he had the momentum to kill in mind.

"See?" I said, holding up my hand.

"Dean?" he asked, taken aback.

"The one and only!"

He looked at me shocked, before tossing half a container of Holy Water at my face.

"Not a demon!" I said again, as he wrapped me in an embrace.

"Son, how?" he said, stepping back. I looked my father figure in his eyes.

"Not a clue," I said, "I was hoping I could smack some sense into Sam. It had to have been him. Where is he?"

"Gone. Left two weeks after you went down," Bobby said.

"What the hell? You just let him go! Is he even alive?" I sputtered.

"He ran off…he was having- visions- of you. He's alive as of last night when he called. I already traced his phone from the call. He's about three hours away. Trying to track a lead on Lilith. He figured killing her might get you back, or at the very least get him some revenge."

"Damn," I swore as Bobby led me to his car straightaway.

_Sammy is in deep this time_, I thought, wrapping my hand as Bobby sped off. I nodded off slowly in the seat next to him.

_ The heat licked at my legs, singing my skin in a perpetual state of heat. _

_ "The great Dean Winchester, so nice to meet you," a demon said to me, holding out a knife that looked eager for blood._

_ "Who the hell are you?" I spat, trying to ignore the pain from the hooks driven in my shoulder and sides, holding me in the air._

_ "My apologies. I am Allistair. I was never one for formalities. Let's skip straight to the fun, shall we?"_

_ He brought the knife down into my arm, twisting the serrated blade in my muscle. I bit back a scream until he reached the bone._

_ "Sammy!" _

I awoke with a start, relieved to be in Bobby's truck.

"You okay, son?" he asked me.

"Yes sir. Nightmare is all."

"Okay." He said. Nightmares were common for hunters, and I thought I was in the clear. "Worst nightmare I've ever seen. Was it hell?"

"Bobby, I don't remember hell. It was nothing," I lied. He raised an eyebrow, but gave up as we reached a motel in Sammy's general area.

We persuaded the motel manager to give us Sam's room number, and we walked slowly up the stairs.

_Not good for a quick getaway, what is he thinking. Reckless._

Bobby knocked on his door, and he opened it, wearing jeans and nothing else, a petite brunette hiding behind him.

"What is – Dean?" he exclaimed, pulling a knife out of his back pocket at the same time.

"Easy tiger. Bobby already tested me, see?" I said, holding up my bloody bandage wrapped hand. Sammy then dumped Holy Water on me as I spat.

"Dean?" he said again, this time almost pleading.

I simply embraced the overgrown teddy bear. He was what got me through hell, afterall.

"How- why?" he asked.

"I was hoping you could tell me. No deals, right?"

"No, I tried," he sighed.

"Then what did you do!?"

"Nothing! I've been tracking Lilith, that's it!"

I watched as the lithe brunette snuck past us, waving goodbye to Sam.

"Doesn't look that's ALL you've been doing," I joked. He gave me a small half smile.

"I guess we need to find out who did then," he said, "I was praying something got you out. I mean, my visions stopped completely about a month ago."

"Visions?" I asked, trying to control my temper.

"Nothing, nothing," Sammy said, way too quickly, "Dean, do you remember anything?"

"Nope," I lied again. If his visions stopped a month ago, then he somehow didn't know all that I had done to innocent souls. One stroke of good luck in all of my life.

"Dean, I know what you experienced, you can tell me," Sammy begged, whipping out the puppy eyes that I had dearly missed.

"I don't remember, Sammy. And are you okay, having seen things and all?"

"Yes." He said, a cloud momentarily passing before his hazel eyes.

"Sammy-"

"No chick flick moments," he said, using my own line to try and change the topic.

"Sam, I'm glad to have you again/"

"Yeah, glad you're back, bro." he said, grinning and hugging me again.

"Chick-y overload, man!" I said, stepping back.

"Whatever. Let's roll," Sam said, leading me to my baby out back.

Definitely beat hell.


	2. Chapter 2

I leaned against the familiar seat of Baby, reveling in the luxury of driving her again, Sammy by my side. Of course I would never say it, but I thought there was no way in hell that I would ever leave hell, at least not as a human still.

The things I did…I didn't feel very human anymore.

And it concerned me that Sam had visions of my first month, or decade, in hell. Alistair had threatened me, saying that Sammy was sure to see everything I did. Sure, I thought it was part of the psychological warfare, but I still tried to block Sam from seeing anything, seeing my agony, hearing my screams.

Apparently I failed at that too.

I was snapped out of my selfish pity-session though.

"Dean, Bobby thinks we ought to get a demon to see if they know how you were released. It won't be pretty, but it's necessary. You up for it?" Sammy said, snapping his cell phone shut.

"Always ready, Sam. Where to?"

"Next exit. We think there's a group of demons in town but we are not sure. We'll stop at the diner, gather intel, all that," Sam said.

I steered baby off the next exit into a small rural town. I pulled up to the first diner I saw.

"Is Bobby meeting us here?" I asked.

"No, he's doing some research on…other stuff," Sam said. I threw him a look before exiting my baby.

_Other stuff? They can't trust me, can they?_

I walked in the diner ahead of Sam, loaded with Holy Water and my 1911. Sam had the demon knife again, somehow. I would have to ask later.

I lead Sam towards a table in the back where I could observe everyone in the diner and talk privately. A pretty blonde waitress came up and took our drink orders. I stared as she walked away, apparently not subtely enough.

"Dean, focus!" Sammy said, smirking, "Okay, so if there are demons here, we need to check for the usual signs and be prepared to fight."

"Yeah, yeah Sam. The usual," I said, glancing back to the returning waitress. I noted that the diner seemed much quitter suddenly, and the lone family had left.

I cast a look a Sam, hoping he read my message.

"Alright boys, I have your drinks. What can I get you to eat?" she said in a smooth voice.

"I'll have the… Christo salad," Sam said, kicking it old school.

She flinched.

I was standing, firing a round of rock salt into her torso before Sam had drawn the demon knife.

She grinned, punching me in the face full forced. My head snapped to the side as Sam took the opportunity to stab her with the blade, and her internal fire flickered menacingly as she dropped. We worked our way to the exit as several other staff members came out from behind the counter, eyes oil slick black.

"Dammit, Sam. We need to go!"

We fled, as two of the three demons still alive smoked out at the threat of the knife and the holy water I was now throwing around. We were not prepared for that quantity of demons and we needed to regroup.

Firing a few rounds of rock salt for good measure, we climbed into the Impala and sped off, parking at a motel on the opposite side of the small town.

"You okay, Dean?" Sammy asked once I pulled up to the dilapidated motel.

"Never better, Sammy. Missed that," I said.

"How could you miss it if you don't have any memories of hell?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Sammy, go check us in while I restock and clean the weapons, okay," I said abruptly. He glared at me for ignoring his question and stomped off to the front desk.

By the time I had cleaned everything and reloaded my 1911, he was back.

"This room," he said, pointing to the door right in front of Baby, "Go ahead in and get established. I have to check some stuff."

I stomped inside with my duffel and began making salt lines at the door and windows, standard practice. I even hopped in the shower.

My first shower since hell.

I let the water run cold. I had had enough heat for a lifetime.

After I enjoyed the cool stream on my muscles, and dressed in some clean jeans and shirt, I sat on the edge of the bed for a moment.

_Where is Sam? He should be back by now. Whatever "stuff" he had to do can wait_

I tucked the demon knife in my back pocket and went out to check on Sam. Sure enough, he was leaning against the Impala. And a petite brunette stood next to him.

"Sam, who's this?" I asked impatiently, recognizing her faintly but unable to place it.

"No one," he mumbled.

I stepped forward. "Sam?"

The woman watched me closely, eyes glinting with knowledge and recognition.

"Her name's Liz. You don't recognize her from earlier?" he asked, and it clicked. She was the woman from his motel room.

"Got it," I said, grinning, "I can leave, Sammy."

"I was just going," she said hastily, clenching her hands into fists. She ran off to a vehicle awaiting around the corner. I casually noticed that her hand was bleeding just a touch.

_She probably tripped._

"Sammy," I said, smiling.

"Don't Sammy me," he retorted, "It's done, don't worry about it." I took his silence as a sign of anger and simply retreated inside before he threw a fit. He followed me inside.

"I'm going to do some research," he said as I clicked on the TV. I let him do his thing for a couple hours, until I realized I was hungry. We hadn't eaten at the diner, and I guess you could say I hadn't eaten in four months.

"Sam, I need some grub. Let's go to a bar," I said, pointing out that it was 9 pm after all.

"Stop whining," he bit.

"Harsh. I haven't eaten in four months, Sam." This led him to reluctantly shut his laptop and put his shoes on. He followed me to Baby, and we went to the nearest bar.

The moment I walked in, I knew something was up. Only two men, the bartender, and one waitress occupied the bar that I would have thought would be busy.

"Sam," I whispered, handing him my 1911 behind his back. I had the knife.

"Hey, Dean. Remember me from hell?" a voice said, stepping out from the corner. I looked to see a tall, toned man, graying but still fairly young.

I froze in fear.

"Dean?" Sam asked, tensing next to me.

The other demons began circling us as the man spoke. "Sammy, is it? I'm Kragen, one of Alistair's apprentices. I got very familiar with how to make Dean scream, now didn't I, Dean-o."

"Dean? You don't remember, right?" Sam's voice pleaded.

I grit my teeth, frozen in fear. A flashback ripped through my mind as Kragen stared at me.

_Kragen loomed over me, grinning sadistically as he cracked the whip down across my shoulder, hitting it right where the meat hook hung me from the rack._

"_Sammy's not coming for you. He doesn't love you, never needed you. He wouldn't have died in the first place if you hadn't dragged him back into the life of a hunter. He hates you," Kragen spat as I screamed._

Kragen had a knack for psychological warfare, and it kept me rooted in place even once the flashback was over. What he could do to me- to Sammy- was terrifying.

"Dean remembers everything," Kragen said to Sam.

"What?" he gasped.

I watched as a demon tackled Sam, disarming him. I stabbed the demon in the back, suddenly snapping back to reality, before two others restrained me.

"We will have fun," Kragen said, and everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you for all the follows and the review! I know this chapter is a bit shorter, but I hope to do more frequent updates. Due to my schedule, that means they will probably all be a bit shorter from here out. Thank you for reading!**

I heard strange sounds around me, murmurs from another world. I slowly tried to open my eyes, bit by bit, but the piercing white light that I saw made me slam them shut again. I again tried to open them, albeit more slowly this time around.

"Dean! Wake up!" I heard Sammy's voice call from far off. That did the trick, and my eyes jumped open.

"What happened?" I mumbled, confused as to why Bobby and Sam were standing over me back at Bobby's place. I knew the couch that I laid on, and I absorbed the familiar surroundings before looking at Sam again. Hunter's instincts, I suppose.

"What do you remember?" he asked, concerned.

I struggled past the haze in my mind, trying to cross the boundary into my memory.

"The demons!" I remembered, "Sam are you okay?"

"I'm fine, god Dean. You got pistol whipped pretty good though," he said. I scanned him for any injury, and he looked fine.

"How'd we get out?"

"Well, that's up for debate," Bobby said, "The demon knocked you out, and then Sam here said something startled the demons. The one called Kragen smoked out, but something tapped Sam and he lost consciousness. When he awoke, the remaining demons were dead, their eyes burned out. Of course he did the good old fashioned salt and burn, and then brought you here."

"What scares a freaking demon?" I said, sitting up, the room swirling in protest.

"No clue. But I think it could have something to do with how you got out of hell," Sam said. That's when it hit me, the memories returning despite my concussed head. Sam had learned, courtesy of a demon, that I did remember my little trip downstairs.

"Great," I said, pissed off at the cards fate had dealt us.

"Dean- about what the demon said…" Sam started to say.

"Believe it or not, sometimes demons tell the truth," I said. No point in lying even further.

"So you do remember your time in the pit?" he asked with that damn puppy look.

"Yes, but we are not going to have some chick flick 'let's talk about it' session. This isn't Oprah, and I still don't know what the hell pulled my ass out of, well, hell, and why it did so. Until that is discovered, case closed," I said. Of course I had no intention of telling Sammy even then.

"I'm here for you whenever, Dean," he said, with a kicked puppy look now on his face.

"I know Sammy." I said, trying to end the conversation.

"Alright, boys. Dean, you probably should get some more rest for that head of yours. And Sam, let's get some research done on what could have pulled Dean out," Bobby said, helping me out with the change in topic.

They left me to sleep, and I slowly drifted off, the throbbing in my skull drifting off to a dull ache.

I woke up screaming, drenched in sweat, and tangled in the thin blanket covering me. Damn nightmare. Damn hell.

"Dean?" Bobby and Sam came running in.

"It's nothing guys," I said, trying to grin, albeit shakily, as they charged the room, ready to fight off supernatural terrors.

"Doesn't seem like nothing, son," Bobby said, walking out to return to his research.

Sam came and sat down next to me. Looked like our previous conversation wasn't over.

"Dean, did you have a nightmare or something?" he asked, his hazel eyes pleading for me to tell him the truth.

"Yeah, Sammy," I sighed, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

"Was it about hell?" he asked.

"No, it was about unicorns, rainbows, and princesses," I bit back, much too harshly. I saw that he was hurt by the way he looked away. "I'm sorry, Sammy. Yeah, it was."

"You know Dean, you could tell me what specifically happened in your dream. I remember when we were little and I had a nightmare, you would crawl into my bed and hold me in your lap. You let me cry into your shoulder, and then had me talk about it. You used to say that sharing your dream prevented the monsters from becoming real. It always made me feel better," Sam said.

"You remember that?" I asked, feeling a smile tug at my mouth.

"Of course," he said, grinning.

"Okay, well it was a torture memory," I said, not wanting to elaborate.

"Dean, you can tell me more," Sam said, huffing in a slightly exasperated manner. My lack of touchy-feely moments was beginning to bother him.

"Sam, I know you had visions, okay? You saw enough. You don't need to know all that happened," I retorted.

"I want to know!"

"I failed, okay? The demons told me you would have visions. I tried to block it out, but I failed. I failed in so many ways!" I was practically yelling by this point.

"Dean, I don't think you failed at all. I just want to help you see that," Sam said.

"Yeah? Well I don't need your help."

I watched as Sam's face fell. I had cut too deep. We may not have always wanted each other, but we sure as heck always needed each other. My stubborn-ness and poor choice in words had upset him.

"Sam, I-"

"Don't worry Dean. I'll give you some space. I'll just be out for a bit," he said, anger and sadness all rolled up in his eyes.

I watched as he stormed out the house. It was all my fault. I had screwed up yet again. I ignored Bobby as he walked in to the room and sat down next to me.

"You idjits fought rather loudly," he said simply.

"Sorry, Bobby."

"Don't worry Dean. I think Sam's just blowing steam off. He just got you back and is afraid, okay?"

"Yeah."

"Hey. You pick your head up right now. You got out of freaking hell, and are not a demon. You're a fighter," he said, patting me on the back as he stood up to leave again, "By the way, you and I are going to head out soon. We are going to lure the thing that got you out."

"Thank you, sir," I said, smiling up at my second father. He was right, as usual. And we were about to go kick some ass.


End file.
